Early flight to Washington tomorrow morning, but here's a couple of notes:
-- Josh Willingham was hit by a pitch in all three games of this series, so he's now been hit by four pitches this year -- just by Royals pitchers. And he's got 10 overall, making him the American League leader in plunkings. Considering that Trevor Plouffe (5) is the only Twin with even half as many, it's been a remarkable year for Willingham, who has now been hit by 99 pitches in his big-league career.
-- Mike Pelfrey pitched well enough to win, so it must have stung to leave with a tie game. "My job is to win and we didn't win the game," the righthander said after pitching into the seventh inning for the first time since April 21, 2012.
"Talking with Doumit [who caught Pelfrey] during the game, he said the ball was really moving," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "That's the best he's seen him, which is a good positive for us."
Pelfrey even survived the sixth inning, which has been nothing but trouble this year -- Pelfrey entered the game with a 29.45 sixth-inning ERA -- but it still wasn't good enough. Eric Hosmer hit a ball to the warning track that Willingham couldn't get to, and Salvador Perez singled Hosmer home to tie the score.
-- Sounds like there may be no game on Friday. The storm that rained out the Nationals tonight is expected to dump two more inches on northern Virginia tomorrow, and there are flood alerts. Don't be surprised if the Twins have a doubleheader on Saturday.
